Two Worlds
by lostladyknight
Summary: Greg/OC friendship. The story of one of the most significant friendships in Greg's life. Spans from 1998 until the present, whenever that happens to be while you're reading. Will depict all Greg 'ships in some way. Most other 'ships.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: **I am going to start re-posting this story. I originally wrote it as a birthday gift for Racefh853629 but pulled it off of the site due to lack of reader interest. Meanwhile, since then I've been told that there was more interest than I thought. So, I'm giving it a second chance.

I hope you'll all enjoy it a second time around!

Please _Review_.

-LLK

* * *

May 5, 2005. 3:00 AM; EST

--

_Wake up._

Tess was squinting as she read her cell phone. She blinked her eyes a few times, trying to force them to focus on the bright screen. After finally having managed to read the text, she couldn't help but grumble as she registered what it said. Glaring at the phone, she quickly folded it closed -- without even responding -- and shoved it under her pillow. She had followed its orders: she was awake. But she didn't plan to stay that way.

She laid there, her eyes now adjusted to the light, and glanced around her blackened room. A sigh escaped her mouth as she realized that she wasn't going to fall back asleep any time soon. Why did she have to be friends with such a total nut job? She could call him and tell him off for it, but she knew that he was probably still on shift. So she was forced to lay in silent protest, plotting a fitting revenge for a later time.

The phone sang out again from under her pillow, and, as she dug for it, she reminded herself that she should change his text tone. The song she'd chosen was far too boisterous and alarming. It was too hard to sleep through. Greg's tone should be something much quieter. Simpler. A jingle or chime. Nothing that could wake her up in the middle of the night.

_Don't u want 2 b the first 1 2 say happy b-day 2 me?_

He was using that infuriating text speak again! Was she allowed to want to kill him on his birthday? It was his thirtieth after all. There wasn't much to look forward to after that. It was all downhill from there. Tess was five years younger and always took the opportunity to rub it in his face. Especially in the few weeks leading up to his "special day," as he'd been a wreck about getting older.

She honestly didn't see why he was making such a big deal of it. So what if he was growing a bit older or advancing a bit in his years? He was still young and fit, and had a great job and friends to boot. As long as he was healthy and in shape, what did it matter what the calendar said his age was?

_No. I think I'll wait until your birthday is almost over before I say anything._

She wasn't the type to spend a lot of time focused on coddling her friend into trying to make him feel better about his current life problems. Of course she was going to say "happy birthday" to him. He _was_ her friend. But that didn't mean she'd make it easy for him to get it out of her. He had woken her up in the middle of the night after all. He couldn't just get his way, not even if it was his birthday. No, he was going to have to work for it.

_U've been more excited about it than me. U know u wanna rub it in._

Before she had had enough time to formulate an actual response to him, she heard her phone begin to ring. Leave it to Greg to wake her up in the middle of the night and then call her to harass her about saying "happy birthday" in a timely fashion. Sometimes she didn't even know why she was friends with him in the first place.

"Gregory Hojem," she greeted him with a stern voice. "Aren't you supposed to be working?"

"I used my birthday powers to get Nick and Warrick to do it for me," he explained to her. Then, with a chuckle, he admitted, "Well, birthday powers or, uh, the magic pee break powers. Take your pick on what to call them."

"So you called me on a pee break?" Tess chuckled sarcastically. "Believe it or not, but that's still not all that flattering."

"I can live with that," he told her flatly. "So what'd you get me?"

"I told you the package should be there tomorrow," she reminded him. "You'll just have to wait until then to see."

"Today, actually," he corrected her. "It's already the fifth. But I don't feel like waiting to see it, so why can't you just tell me? It IS my birthday after all."

"Whatever. I'm going back to sleep." Tess closed her phone and rolled over, pulling the comforter back up over her shoulders. She was settled in for a matter of seconds before the phone rang again. "What?"

"Don't sound so happy to hear from me," Greg admonished her. "Don't you have a few minutes to talk? I know when you get up you're gonna want to write all day."

"Fine," she agreed. She sat up a bit in bed and leaned over to turn on her bedside lamp. "You have ten minutes. _Happy birthday_."

"Thank you," he gloated into the phone. She wished she could reach through the phone and smack him. "So how are you?"

"Sleepy," she groggily answered.

"How's Jamie?"

"Lucky," she grumbled.

"Why exactly is she lucky?" Greg asked, teasing her.

"She's sleeping right now," she growled back at him, slumping back under the covers.

"Do you really want to go back to bed that badly?" he asked her, half teasing, half kindly. "Because, if you really do, I could let you off the hook for the last eight minutes of this call."

"I do." She fumbled up and turned off the light.

"Goodnight then," he said. "I'll call you when I get off of shift."

"Night." She closed her phone one last time and burrowed into her blanket.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: **Chapter two! I hope by now you're starting to develop an idea about what kind of friendship I want them to have. This is based on one I have in real life--albeit loosely. So, I'd like to know how well I'm doing with it being natural.

I hope you'll all enjoy it a second time around!

Please _Review_.

-LLK

* * *

January 1, 2000. 12:00 AM; PST

--

"Happy new year!" Tess' voice cried on the other end of the line. "Because you know the new millennium isn't until next year."

Greg drank a shot of Vodka quickly and grumbled. At twenty-four, he should have something better to do than sit up on the phone with some nineteen-year-old from the other side of the country on New Year's. "I feel like such a loser."

"Why?" she asked, pointedly. Greg could hear the shrill moans of his friend's infant daughter in the other room on the end of the line. "Ugh. I almost got to her this time. I swear, one of these days I'll get the timing right for her feedings."

Greg ignored his friend's comment about her baby. It was one of his rare nights off since he'd started working as a lab tech at the crime lab in Las Vegas the previous November, and he was sitting at home, in the prime of the night, on the phone. "Because Archie, Nick, Warrick, Bobby, even Dave from the morgue all have dates tonight, and what did I get? I got dumped."

"You got dumped as a Christmas gift, Greggo," Tess said to him, putting it in perspective. He heard the sounds of baby Jamie suckling on her bottle next to the phone. "Look if you wanted a date for tonight, you could have called Mona, or Pamela, or that girl from the movies last November."

"Julie," he answered. "And I was dating Kate when I met her. How weird would that sound? 'Uh... hi... you and I talked four hours after a movie a couple of months ago, but I was dating someone. She dumped me on Christmas day though, so you wanna go to a party or something?' Any self respecting woman would laugh in my face."

"If you guys hit it off..." Tess paused. Greg couldn't be sure why exactly. She could have been burping Jamie or maybe searching for the right words. Or, as Greg had grown to expect from her, she could simply be pausing for dramatic effect. She was a writer and often employed different techniques in everyday speech. Finally, she continued. "She'd be a damn fool not to give you a chance. Girls have a way of knowing when we're missing out on something."

"If I'm such a great guy, then why did Kate dump me on Christmas day?" Greg asked, pouring another shot of vodka and drinking it. He resisted the urge to sigh out deeply with the burn from the alcohol. "Because, if I'm such a great guy, you'd think my girlfriend of a year and a half would wait until after the holidays to dump me."

"Look, Greg, it sucks," Tess told him flatly. "But people get dumped all the time. Move on. She was just some psycho depressed chick that couldn't take that you moved to Vegas. You're bound to do better next time."

"I'm not exactly Casanova," Greg grumbled to her, taking yet another shot. "I've never really had the best track record with women."

"So why don't you experiment with men?" She asked. He could hear the sarcasm in her voice and knew she was only joking, but something about her comment made him angry. He chewed his lip trying to keep from yelling into the phone. "If you can't make it work with a woman, I've always had enough luck with men.... I have a few numbers I could give you."

Greg felt himself growing increasingly more angry with her as she talked, and, for one of the first times in his life, he was starting to feel like he couldn't control that anger. He let his temper get the best of him, and, in a split second decision, he chose to hang up on her. He popped the battery out of his cell phone so that she would think that he'd lost charge when she tried to call him back, poured another shot, and rubbed his eyes. This was shaping up to be one of the worst years of his life, and it was only a couple of minutes old.

He felt badly for being as angry as he was with her. Tess saw things how they were and for the most part told them exactly the same. It was a frustrating quality when she was trying to tell someone to suck it up and get over something. The problem was that, as infuriating as it was at the time she was doing it, he'd always come to know that she was right in the end. It was why he kept her around really -- because she had an uncanny ability to see things from an objective perspective, but she had a powerful bias in his favor. No matter how much objectivity she used, she always volleyed for what she thought was best for him.

He went into his living room and sat on the couch behind his laptop. While he was quickly writing an email to Julie, trying to see if he still had any chance with her, another came in. He finished up his message, sent it, and then prepared for the worst as he went to check the new mail. As he had expected, it was from Tess. Surely by now, a full three minutes since he'd hung up on her, she knew that he'd been faking a malfunction and was emailing him to give him a piece of her mind. He bit down on his lip slowly and clicked to open the message.

_Jerk!_

_I was only kidding around with that stuff. You should have known that._

_I'm sorry for being an ass. But you didn't have to hang up on me!_

_Call me before you go to work and tell me you forgive me, okay?_

_-Tess_

It hadn't been as bad as he'd expected. He chuckled to himself and closed his computer down. It wasn't nearly late enough for him to be tired, given that he worked the night shift, but he couldn't help but feel fatigued. Acting whiny and depressed had taken a lot out of him.

He put his head back on the armrest of his couch and whistled loudly. Skellington, his Jack Russell terrier, came running into the room and bounced up on his chest, pelting him hard with his sharp claws. Greg groaned a bit and helped the dog settle into a comfortable position.

He woke up at 9:27 the next morning in the same position.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: **

Please _Review_.

-LLK

* * *

June 10, 2006. 4:00 PM; EST

--

Tess let the large glass door swing closed behind her as a smirk spread over her face and she fumbled through her purse for her phone. She trusted her feet to get her back to her car as she focused on the screen of her cell, searching for Greg's name so she could call him. He was bound to be asleep and on top of a double shift, but this news was just too good to wait.

She was putting her key in the driver's side lock on her car when he answered the phone. She smiled sadly at his groggy tone as she heard him trying to wake up to talk. Finally, she couldn't contain herself any more, "they bought it!"

"Wait," Greg said. His tone was confused and concerned sounding. "Who bought what?"

"They gave me a contract!" She almost shouted it into the phone. Her voice was high, and her tone was more of a squeal.

"They bought it?!" As Greg slowly started to grasp the conversation at hand, his tone grew more excited. "They bought it? You're getting published?"

"Yeah!" She was almost crying in excitement as the engine of her car turned over. "They told me that they liked it and liked the idea for the whole series. I have thirty days to give them a draft, and then, with some promoting, it should be in stores by early December. Louie, my agent, even told me that they'd talked about buying the next book already. So if this one sells well, I'll probably have a contract for book two by March."

"Wow! Tess, that's amazing!" Greg told her. All traces of sleep seemed lost in his voice. All that was left was sheer pleasure for her. "Man we—we've got to celebrate!"

"Well, you can take me out to dinner when I'm there next week," she said, teasing him. "But we can't do much about it until then. It's kinda tough to celebrate something from across the country."

"Still, Tess, that's amazing news," Greg said. She could hear the smile in his voice now. "I mean, you're really getting published. You've been trying for years... Wow! Congratulations."

"Thanks, Greg." She smiled. She listened quietly for a while as he talked about how wonderful it was that she was getting published. He babbled away her whole car ride. As she pulled into her driveway and started to shut down her engine, she decided to turn the conversation on to him. "So, how's your friend? Did he get to go home today like you thought?"

"Yeah," Greg told her. His voice cracked a little as he finished the story. "We all went to his house after shift and gave him a small welcome home party. We were only there about an hour though. He's recovering from a gunshot after all. We didn't want to wear him out."

"I'm glad he's okay," Tess commented slowly. "It was really frightening when he got shot."

It had frightened her, more than she let on. The idea that it could have been Greg instead of his friend was very real to her. Knowing that someone important to her friend had had his life in jeopardy was hard enough. What if something happened to Greg in the line of duty? She wasn't sure she could sit idly by from three thousand miles away and watch.

She knew that having been so bothered by the whole episode was a bit on the paranoid side, but she couldn't help it. Greg and his colleagues all worked for the police department, and that meant they dealt with criminals. Greg could have been wounded in an interrogation room just as easily as Captain Brass had been shot in that hotel room by that suspect. What if someone had returned to a scene when he was there? What if he didn't have back-up and was shot like that girl a few years ago? What if? What if...? She respected him for what he did, but the truth was that she felt selfish from time to time. She'd far rather know her friend would be safe than ever see him catch another murderer.

"It was," Greg agreed, though -- she suspected -- for another reason. "It was good to see him home, and his daughter, Ellie, is staying with him. I actually think it might be out of concern for him and not for personal gain."

"That's good," Tess agreed. She knew how little Greg had thought of Ellie over the years, and no amount of her dwelling on his everyday peril would stop him from ranting about her when he got on the subject. "I've always told you I thought there was probably a pretty good person under it all when it came to her."

"I'm still not convinced," Greg spat back. "The way I was brought up, you're there when your family or friends need you."

"She is there, Greg." Tess chewed her lip. "It just took her a little longer to figure out that's where she needed to be than it would most people."

"I guess," he conceded. Neither spoke for a while as they both sat and contemplated the bigger picture. Finally Greg broke the silence with a very sobering question. "Hey, Tess. If it was me, would you come out here?"

"Yes."

"Even if you couldn't find a sitter for Jamie?"

"Yes."

"Even if it was my own fault?"

"Yes. That's what friends do, Greg."

"I love you, you know that right?" Greg asked her, chuckling a little.

"I know," she answered with a cocky gait to her voice. Though they didn't say it often, they both knew that they shared a very unique and strong friendship. "I love you too."


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N:** Many thanks to the talented and grammatically apt happyharper13 for the beta on these four chapters! :-D

Please _Review_.

-LLK

* * *

April 9, 2002. 3:00 PM; PST.

--

Greg pulled on the heavy police department door and walked into work. He had arrived a few hours early, but as a favor to the daytime DNA technician. Though he wasn't looking forward to the extended shift three hours of overtime weren't going to hurt his paycheck any, especially right before he had a vacation planned.

Before he'd even settled into the DNA lab to start working, one of the day CSI's, Sophia Curtis, had come in and asked him to run a piece of evidence for him. He'd only met her a few times before, when he'd been working day shift, but he had grown to prefer her to most of the other CSI's on her shift. Trying to make the most out of his extended day he set to work quickly and began testing the three identical infant pacifiers, having to admit to himself that sometimes the things people brought to him made him wonder.

He'd been working for only about twenty minutes when he heard his phone ding to tell him he'd received a text message. He finished the part of the test he was doing, settled all of his materials into their proper homes, and moved towards his phone.

_Tell me a joke._

Naturally, it was Tess making demands without even greeting him first. He laughed at the prospect and then sat back in his chair trying to think of one. Finally, after a few moments of thought, he felt as though he had a joke that would be adequate.

_Y shouldn't U play cards n a jungle?_

_Why?_

_Cuz of all the cheetahs._

_That was the lamest joke I've ever heard._

_U kno U laughed._

_Maybe just a little bit. Tell me another joke._

_Y?_

_I don't know. I guess I just need to laugh right now._

_Is something wrong?_

_No. It's just really quiet here for some reason._

_Oh._

Greg looked around the lab to make sure that none of stricter members of the Day Shift were in sight or earshot, and then quickly dialed Tess' number. He set her on speaker phone and put her down on the desk next to a piece of paper he was filling out with case information.

"Hey," she greeted, happy to hear from someone. Then, a moment later, he heard her grumble, "You've got me on speaker again?"

"I'm at work," he told her as he poured a bit of a testing solution into the GCMS. "So if you want someone to entertain you, you're going to have to be willing to be on speaker."

"Fine," she told him playfully. "How come you're in work so early?"

"Doing a favor for the day shift tech," he told her methodically as he finished measuring liquids and putting things away. The Day Shift tech was even messier than he was. "I think his kid had a soccer game or something."

"What's his name again?" Tess asked, sounding as though she was trying to remember for herself. "I mean the tech, not his kid."

"Michael," Greg answered absently. When he heard the machine behind him ding, stating that a test from earlier that day had been completed, he shifted to gather the results. Calling over his shoulder, he said, "I'm pretty sure his son's name is Dalton."

"Right," Tess remembered. "Claybourne, right? He's the one that finds your porn and then re-hides it in different places around the DNA lab?"

Greg stopped in his tracks and turned around to glare at the phone. "I do NOT have dirty magazines around the lab."

"Greg, everybody knows that you used to keep them in the third edition medical text, second from the right, top shelf... left side of the room," she told him playfully. "That is until Claybourne found them and started making you sweat by moving them around."

"How'd you -- " He didn't finish his question. Finishing his question would mean admitting that she was right, and he just didn't want to do that. "You know that's just stupid. Why would I keep porn at work?"

"Because you're Greg?" she asked with a laugh. "And I knew that because I know everything."

"You have a spy," he accused. Then, getting into the act, he added, "Who is it?"

"Well, I'll just say that he's a CSI and he's taller than you..." she teased him.

He just couldn't figure out how or why she was talking to Nick or Warrick -- unless they'd told her when she had come to visit in January. He'd brought her into work a few evenings, and it would have been easy for them to plant seeds of untruth in her head while his back was turned. Or — he had to admit — seeds of embarrassing truth. And, of course, she wouldn't have said anything then. She was the type to save things like that as ammo, so she could use them to her advantage later.

Sometimes he hated the lengths she would go to to play a joke. Mostly because they were usually jokes played on him and they always ended up making him look like an idiot, though, if he was honest, he'd have to admit that he brought it on himself most of the time.

"Which one?" he asked her. She made a humming sound. "I guess if you won't tell me, I'll just have to pay them both back."

She kept humming.


	5. Chapter 5

** A/N:** Just a little idea of Greg's life before Tess. Enjoy!

_Please Review._

* * *

January 3, 1998. 11:51 PM; EST.

--

"Yewww ghet losss?" Though Greg heard his friend talking through slurs from well across the bar he didn't understand.

Adam was perched in a high chair behind a table in the back corner of the building, and Greg made his way back and climbed into his seat. "What was that?" he asked his friend, leaning closer to him because of all of the noise around them.

"I asssked you what took sssso long," Adam told him, reaching a hand out and shaking the purse that Greg held in his left hand. "Where'd you get the baaaag?"

"Oh, this?" Greg asked positioning the bag on the table in front of him. "It's been sitting alone at the bar since we got here." He unzipped it and reached in looking for the owner's wallet.

"What are you doing?" Adam said, dropping a hand on the bag. "You can't juss go through that girl'ssss sssstufffff-a."

Greg pushed his friend's hand off. "How am I going to know who to return it to?" He watched as Adam gave him a quizzical look and then turn contentedly back to his beer. Finally, he found the girl's wallet and pulled it out.

"You wannn-t another?" Adam gestured to his beer and waved a waitress over.

"Uh, yeah actually," Greg smiled at the waitress and set down the wallet for a moment, passing her a five dollar bill from his own. "Thanks."

He went back to the purse and removed the wallet again. "Hey check this... according to this girl's ID she's only seventeen."

"Well then she shouldn' have been in a place like thisss," Adam told him. He leaned forward and pushed Greg's beer closer to him. "Dude you've gotta focusss here, it's my twenty-firss, don't make me have all the fun by myssself." He waved to the waitress again, ordering them each a shot of tequila.

Greg settled the wallet back into the purse in front of him and started focusing on the task at hand, getting Adam totally plastered in order to celebrate his birthday with him. He drank the shot of tequila without a second glance. "Okay for the rest of the night it's two for one. Everything I drink you've got to drink two."

"Oh no," Adam said but seemed to have lost his thought in mid-sentence. Greg gave him a moment and before long it came back to him, "You're getting jussss-t as plasssssstered assss me."

"Whatever you say," Greg said, chuckling a little. He grabbed his beer and drank from it with the same gusto Adam had started the night with. "If I don't stay moderately sober who's gonna see to it that your pretty face makes it home okay?"

"Jussst keep drinking," Adam told him shoving another shot towards him. Finally after being satisfied by Greg's consumption of the final shot—rum this time, he staggered to his feet. "Let'ssss get out of here."

"You sure you're good to get home?" Greg asked, dropping another twenty on the table and frowning at his empty wallet. They were going to have to walk but would Adam be up to a seven block trek in his current state? "You have any cash on you?"

"My birthday," Adam said with an innocent expression on his face as though that solved everything.

"Yeah but you spent all my money in the bar," Greg told him regretfully. "I don't have enough for a cab. We're gonna have to walk."

"It'ssss not ssssso far," Adam informed him. "Let'sss go."

They made it all of a half of a block before Adam had stumbled twice and bumped into a lamp post apologizing to it two or three times. Greg laughed and wished he'd had a camera with him so he could get the exchange on video. "He's gonna be fine," Greg told his friend. "He'll walk it off."

"It'sss rude," he said. "You can't jusssst bump into ssssomeone and not ssssay ssssorry."

"Somehow I think he'll live," Greg said, pushing his friend forward gently. "We need to get home."

"Whatever you say," Adam said sarcastically. "Mom."

"Your mom," Greg joked not even realizing how ridiculous it sounded.

"Hey wait," Adam said stopping in his tracks and grabbing Greg's arm. "You took that girl's purse?"

"Uh, yeah," Greg said, holding it up so Adam could investigate it. "I'm going to try to find out who it belongs to so I can send it back to her. What'd you want me to do, just leave it there for all the creeps and weirdos?"

"You're a creep," Adam informed him. "And I'm a weirdo."

Greg couldn't help but laugh at his friend's observation as he grabbed him by the shoulder and helped him walk in the direction of their apartment. He stumbled a couple of times himself as he felt the alcohol slowly start to take hold and chuckled again at Adam's comment. "I still say she's better off with guys like us having her purse than some of the other usuals at that bar."

"Yeah."

"Why do we even go to that place anyway?" Greg asked. "We've been there twice a week for the last year and I don't really know why."

"Kate."

"So I think she's cute," Greg admitted. "It's not like you've never hoped a girl would notice you."

Adam looked up at him ready to comment again but all that managed to come out was a steady stream of vomit.


	6. Chapter 6

** A/N:** Another chapter's up and ready for you guys! What are you thinking? Oh, and I forgot to mention it last chapter. The Adam that Greg shared a meal with was Adam Ross--of NY. I like the two of them as friends.

_Please Review._

* * *

May 9, 2003. 5:00 AM; PST

--

A small cry warned Tess that more would be soon to follow. She shifted into a partial sitting position and tried to wake her daughter (who was asleep in her arms) and comfort her before she broke into full wails because of the unfamiliarity of the situation. Another sound from the child in her lap made Tess shift completely to a full sitting position and start rubbing her daughter's back.

"We still at the hop-spittle?" the child's groggy voice asked.

"Yeah honey," Tess whispered to the child trying to quiet her. "Uncle Greg's still sleeping though. We have to be quiet."

"He okay yet?" she asked gently, trying to whisper even though she hadn't quite mastered the art yet. "When's he gonna wake up?"

"Right now," Greg's groggy voice interrupted the conversation Tess was having with her daughter. Not that either minded. Both threw themselves at him, hugging him tightly. "Ow. Easy. I'm still a little sore."

"Oh," Tess put a hand on Jamie's shoulder and pulled her back from Greg, adjusting both her child and herself so that there was no longer a risk of hurting him. "Are you okay?"

"Tess what are you doing here?" His voice was a little choppy and a little broken, but his face was all concern. Why was it that he was worried about her? He was the one in a hospital bed. "Tess?"

"Greg," she mocked him, though much more firmly. "You're in the hospital. Or, did you somehow miss that?"

"Yeah, I know," his voice was a mutter. "And you're here with me. Tess, you live six thousand miles away."

"So?" She couldn't believe how concerned he seemed to be with her affairs given the current situation. "I couldn't get you all day and when someone finally did answer the phone it was Catherine telling me that your lab exploded. I got the first flight out."

"You didn't have to--" she cut him off with a glare. They both knew that she did have to do it. "How long are you going to be here?"

"When are you going to be released from the hospital?" She countered him, pulling out her cell phone to mark the date on its internal calendar.

"They tell me about five more days," he chewed his lip like a child. "Just to avoid infection and all that fun stuff."

"So how about Jamie and I stick around for the next seven days?" she asked him, with a small smile. "And, Jamie wants to know if she can stay at your place. I'm getting a hotel, obviously, but Jamie doesn't want to pay for seven days in a hotel so she was just wondering if maybe..."

"Fine," Greg pulled Jamie up onto the bed and tickled her tummy, "But since she's a wild one you better go stay with her just in case."

"Gweg," the child chirped. "I'm the good one."

The three of them laughed. After a few minutes of Jamie telling Greg about their trip across the country, her small body animated as she talked, they settled into an easy conversation. Two hours passed with Jamie still lying close to Greg and Tess sitting in a chair at his side.

"I think she's asleep," Tess said gesturing to her daughter who lay propped between Greg's side and his left arm. Her auburn hair was spread across his chest. "I can move her to the chair if you're uncomfortable."

"No," Greg told her gently. He pulled the coarse hospital blanket up over her tiny body and squeezed his arm around her more possessively. He looked up at Tess, studying her face. "Thanks for being here."

"I heard the words explosion and hospital..." she said as if it was a given she'd come but then she paused for a moment trying to stop her voice from cracking. "What happened?"

"I uh," Greg started but shook his head and looked away from her. "It was just an accident. I'm fine."

"Was it your fault?" the look he gave her warned that he was nearly offended by her question. "C'mon Greg, you know what I mean. Are you liable? Are you going to get suspended or anything?"

"No, uh... actually," he stumbled a bit. "It was Catherine and Warrick that put the chemical in my lab that led to the explosion. Catherine's the one who's been suspended for it."

"Warrick?" Tess asked, trying to get a feel for what he was thinking, if he held any resentment over what happened. She did. "Was he suspended also?"

"No, Catherine wouldn't let that happen." He shook his head, "not to Warrick. Besides she was the one that physically did it."

"Are you angry?" He shook his head to the negative. Of course he wasn't. "Well, you're going to be okay?" Tess _was_ angry, perhaps enough for both of them.

"In time," he mentioned. "I'm going to have some nasty scars though."

Tess absently reached up and touched a spot on his chest that was covered in reddened bandage and a few strands of Jamie's hair. "It's just a badge of courage."


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N:** _Just another litte chapter for you guys. Sorry it took so long to get this one out it took me a while to figure out where it fell on the timeline. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it._

_Please review!_

* * *

March 14, 2006. 7:16 PM; EST

--

"Are you excited as I am?" Tess asked, as she pulled her phone to her ear. "Less than twenty four hours!"

"No 'Hello?'" He laughed.

"Nah," she shifted the phone so she could talk and drive. "Salutations are overrated."

"Since when?" He quizzed her playfully. "And hell yeah I'm excited. I put these purple sheets in the guest room, Jamie's gonna love them."

"You didn't have to do that," Tess said, picturing Greg coming out of the store with girly bedsheets. "You know we're fine with whatever you have."

"They were half off," he argued. "And I knew she'd love them."

"Hold on a sec," Tess said before glancing at the screen of her cell phone, there was an incoming call from Jamie's father. "Hey Greg I've got to get the other line, it's Mitchell."

"Oh, him,"Greg complained. "Better not keep him waiting."

"I'll call you back," she promised. She flashed over to her other line, "Hello?"

"Tessa?" The older man asked. "What time are you going to pick your daughter up? It's already after seven, I thought you said you'd be here?"

"I said I'd be there at seven thirty," Tess stated flatly. "She's a six year old girl and your daughter, you can't handle her for three and a half hours after school one day a week?"

"I was just checking in," he said loudly. He was quiet for a few moments, "you're going out of town tomorrow morning?"

"Yes," Tess answered. "I'm going out to Vegas for a few days."

"Who's going to be watching my daughter while you're on the other side of the country?" His tone was forceful and rude. "I have a right to know."

"She's coming with me," Tess ran a hand through her hair and rubbed her temple gently as she waited at a red light. "It's an annual trip, we go every year."

"Exactly what business does my six year-old daughter have in Las Vegas?"

"We're visiting her uncle," Tess explained, trying not to grow angry with the man. He hadn't been involved in Jamie's life in years and was still learning a lot more about the way they did things. If she wanted Jamie's father in her life she needed to let go of petty annoyances.

"I don't think so."

"Excuse me?"

"My daughter's not going anywhere," he stated. "Especially not to go stay with some guy while her mother sleeps around like a floozie."

"I'll do whatever I want with my daughter," she said, ignoring the rest of what he'd said. "And she has a right to spend a week with her uncle every now and then if she wants to. Look if you want to spend time with your daughter I think that's great but three and a half months of afternoon visits and expensive gifts aren't going to give you the right to dictate major issues in her life."

"Just let us keep her this weekend," Mitchell requested as though he didn't hear what Tess had been saying. "Her brother and sister are going to be here... it'll be good for them to get to know each other. She hardly knows Sara-Beth at all because she's always doing school stuff and Parker's been at practice every time she's been here."

"That's a shame," Tess said, trying to sympathize. "I want her to get to know her siblings, that's kind of why I agreed to this in the first place. But not this weekend, no way. This is important."

"No. I'll be by your apartment at six tomorrow morning to pick her up, have her stuff packed. She'll be waiting at the gate for you when you get here," he said hanging up the phone.

"Mitchell?" She asked but heard a dead line. She slammed the phone down in the passenger's seat and sighed. "Who does he think he is?"

There was nobody in the car with her to answer. She grabbed her phone again and dialed Greg's number quickly. A soon as she heard is voice she went into a rant, "He wants Jamie this week. He actually told me that I couldn't take her with me to Vegas. He called me a floozie! Can you believe that? He actually told me he didn't want Jamie there!"

"He said what!?" Tess could hear the seething in his voice. "You said no right? I mean you told him to stuff it right?"

"Greg," she said slowly. "I..."

"You can't be serious!" He took a deep breath and continued, "You're really going to let him get away with this?"

"He's her father Greg," she said slowly. "He has a right."

"He has _no_ right," he corrected her.

Mitchell had been a sore spot between Greg and Tess since before Jamie had ever been born. A part of Tess had always hoped that he would grow to appreciate Mitchell for what he was but in truth she didn't think he ever would. Greg wasn't the kind of person that made friends with people who'd hurt her very easily. It was something she had only hoped would never become an issue.


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N:** Well now we get to see where it all started. Or, well where some of it started again. Just wanted to let you all know that I'm aware I dropped certain plots around and that I do plan on picking them up again. We will see more of when Greg and Tess first met. We will see more of Tess and Greg's visits with one another. We will see more of Jamie and her father and a lot of other fun stuff!

I'd love it if you'd _review please_. Thanks!

-LLK

* * *

February 8, 1999. 4: 00 PM; EST.

--

Greg woke up for the fourth time that day and grumbled at himself for not being able to sleep despite having been up all night. He fumbled around for his cell phone and looked at it for the time realizing it was in the middle of his allotted sleep time for the day he shoved it under his pillow frustratedly and turned over again, trying to get back to sleep. Another few minutes passed and his mind was still reeling, finally he gave up and grabbed his phone again dialing Tess' number.

"Hey Greg," he heard her voice greet him happily. "What's up? Shouldn't you be sleeping?"

"I couldn't sleep," he admitted. "Where were you yesterday?"

"I was at home," she said slowly as her voice dropped. "Where else would I be?"

"I tried calling," he stated without emotion. "Twice."

"Oh," she said quietly. They were silent for a few moments. "I guess I must have had my phone off or something. I'm sorry."

"You always answer your phone," he pressed. "Where were you?"

They were both silent again for a while as Greg felt another wave of fatigue come over him. He ran his hand over his head and through his hair stopping it to hold back a yawn. He then turned and tucked his hands under his pillow, nestling closer to it. He glanced at the clock across the room from him, yawned again involuntarily and pulled the phone closer to his mouth.

"Tess," he said gently. "Come on...where were you?"

"I was..." she stopped obviously unsure as to if she should tell him or not. "Well, okay... I was on a date."

"A date?!" he asked happily, sitting up in bed so he could quiz her on it. "Who's the guy? Do I know him? Or... well do I know of him?"

"It was nobody," she insisted. He voice quickened and got a lot higher, something was bothering her. "Look it was just a stupid dinner nothing happened. Okay?"

"I didn't say it did." He waited for a moment as he shifted and turned on the lamp beside his bed. "So why don't you just tell me about it? Who is he?"

"Why do you want to know so badly?"

"If it was me wouldn't you be asking?" He pointed out remembering how much she'd pestered him when he'd first started seeing Kate. "I won't judge you."

"It was one of my teachers."

"I've always said you'd be better off with an older guy," he laughed. "So how'd you guys end up having dinner together?"

"We didn't eat dinner," Tess admitted and Greg's heart fell to the pit of his stomach. "I slept with him. Uh...in his... uh...office."

"You what?" Greg asked as shock slowly set in. "Well _that's_ romantic."

"Shut up!" she said violently. Greg immediately felt badly for the way he'd put it. "It just happened okay. And it was really awesome."

"I thought you said you were..." he stopped. "Well, a uh... you know?"

"Not anymore."

"Oh," he whispered. "You okay?"

"I'm fine," she spat. "I swear guys ask the stupidest questions sometimes!"

"Well Tess I kinda don't know what to say here," he admitted. He fought another yawn back, this time not even wanting to be tired anymore. "He's a decent guy though right? He's nice to you and he's not married or anything."

"Of course," she argued though Greg wasn't convinced.

"Good," he said slowly and then choked on the last few words. "Well then I'm happy for you."

"No you're not," she accused him. "I can tell it from your voice. You're anything but happy for me. God Greg! I knew I couldn't tell you without you judging me like everyone else!"

"I'm not gonna judge you for this Tess," he said back a bit more loudly than he'd intended. "It's just sudden okay? I don't want you to end up getting hurt."

"Of course you would say that!" she shouted. "Look believe it or not I'm not some teenager with a crush on an older guy. I'm a legal adult—I'll be nineteen in a few weeks and I'm a student at Yale. I'm not exactly stupid."

"I didn't say that," Greg said desperately. "I don't think that. You know I don't think that. I'm just worried about you. C'mon Tess... that wasn't fair."

"Neither is you trying to make me feel badly about this."

"Fine," he agreed though he wasn't happy about saying it. "I won't say any more about the whole situation until you decide how you feel about it. Promise."

"Thank you," he heard her whisper back into the phone and could almost see the smile as it spread across her face.


	9. Chapter 9

_A/N:_ Hey all, sorry this took so long. I just got sorta busy, I guess. Anyway before we begin I want to say something so there's no confusion. Greg is not Jamie's father. I know you are going to assume he is because he's with Tess, he's not. Okay? Okay. Also, sorry that I had two chapters so close together in the story in a row, but I really wanted to write a scene where Greg and Tess talked names.

_Enjoy_ and _Review_, please.

-LLK

* * *

July 3, 1999. 9:33 PM; EST

--

They sat awkwardly, side by side, in the tattered and under stuffed gray waiting room chairs. Each one seemingly piled closer and closer together as they glanced down and studied stale magazines and old diagrams on the wall. Each picture depicting a different stage of fetal development, each one seeming more dated than the last. The seventies era pinks and blues that decorated the walls seemed more like a bad omen than a reminder of a joyous occasion.

Tess felt Greg's weight shift on the chair next to her as he leaned forward and scooped up the only baby name book that didn't match the two decade old feel of the whole establishment. It had been abandoned by the woman beside him when she stood to go in for her appointment. Tess glanced around the room accidentally making eye contact with a middle aged couple and their very pregnant teenage daughter. She flipped her copy of People closed and reached for another issue.

"We'll let the fates decide," Greg said, flipping aimlessly through the book, he let it fall open to a random page. "Gerald, Grant, Grayson, Gregory—see, see! I told you you should name him after me!"

"I'm not naming him Gregory," she argued, snatching the book from him and studying the page. "What about Grayson? Do you like that? Grayson Harlow..."

"It has a ring, I guess," Greg said scrunching up his face in pretend disgust. "But you know what would sound even better? Gregory Harlow. Now _that_ sings."

"I already told you Greg," her voice dripped in frustration, more than she'd intended to let on. "I am not gonna name this baby after you. Besides, who says it's even gonna be a boy anyway?"

"I do," his voice was playful, annoyingly so. She didn't want to be there, she didn't want to be doing this—talking baby names. She was nineteen and had just finished her second year at Yale, she wasn't supposed to be having a baby. Greg leaned over and stuck his finger to the page she was looking at, "I'd be okay with you calling my nephew Grant."

"You don't get a say in this," she spat, pushing him off of her and away from the book. "This is my kid and I'll call _her_ whatever I want."

"Who says it's a her?"

"Greg," she warned. "I'm not exactly in the mood for one of your games. My baby, my decision."

"You're just mad because I made you come to the doctor."

"You think?" She asked in the most arrogant, annoying, teenager tone she could possibly manage. "I don't see why you made me waste my day doing this. It's not like being pregnant is gonna kill me or anything."

"It's just good to make sure everything is okay," he explained. "You have to go to the doctor to make sure that the baby is healthy and that your body is handling the pregnancy the way it's supposed to. I honestly can't believe you didn't come sooner, that was really reckless of you."

"I'm not perfect all the time," she pointed out. She knew that the only real reason she'd taken so long to go was because she was still in a sort of denial. She didn't want to be pregnant--not that she didn't already love her child but she just wasn't ready to be a mom, yet.

She could tell by the look on Greg's face that he was going to make some sort of smart comment but he was interrupted when a nurse invited "Mr. and Mrs. Harlow" to the back.

"It's _Miss_ Harlow," Tess corrected the woman. "I'm not married."

"Do you want me to come or stay here?" Greg asked, half standing half still sitting. "I mean, I'm okay with whatever you want."

"Come," even she could hear how child-like her voice had sounded.

Greg cleared his throat and grabbed their jackets and Tess' purse, following closely behind her and the doctor. Tess made eye contact with him and reached out for his hand, squeezing it as the walked. It was the first time she and Greg had ever actually met in person. He was still living in New York but they had never made the time or effort to actually visit with one another in a personal setting. As they both had stated several times in the past couple of years of friendship, their friendship was just fine the way it was.

What had prompted this meeting was Tess' assertion that she wouldn't go to the OB-GYN without him there—thinking he'd never come. Greg had just been given a new job in Las Vegas as a DNA technician for the crime lab, and would be leaving in august as soon as he finished a final summer seminar. Tess really didn't want to go to the doctor, but she'd hated the idea of Greg leaving before they had a proper meeting even more.

"So," the nurse asked, obviously being nosy. "You two gonna get married?"

"Uh," Tess coughed. "No."

"I'm not the father," Greg corrected the woman. "We're just friends."

"Oh you're telling tall tales boy," she accused him. "Ain't no way."


	10. Chapter 10

December 10, 2008. 2: 32 PM; EST.

- -

Greg sat awkwardly in a doctor's office seat and for the second time in his life he found himself waiting to hear something about Jamie. He remembered the last time—before she'd even been born and he'd had to drag Tess to a doctor to ensure that the pregnancy was going safely. This time, unfortunately, was also Greg's fault.

It was bad enough that he'd been the one that had dropped Jamie from his shoulders, onto concrete, and given her a concussion—no—of all of the people in the world he had to be sitting in the waiting room with Mitchell.

"What exactly do you have to say for yourself?" Mitchell asked, imposingly larger than Greg. "And what are you going to do to make up for this, boy?"

"It's Greg," Greg corrected the man, having never felt like being so rude to anyone before in his life. "Not boy. And I'll do whatever I have to to make it up to Tess and Jamie."

"I doubt that," the older man said. He cleared his throat and looked at Greg very seriously. "It's obvious that it's in Jocelyn's best interest if you stay out of her life. You and I both know that Tessa doesn't have the best judgment about these things."

"Excuse me?" Greg asked, seething.

"Well Tessa left her eight year old daughter in the hands of a complete stranger," Mitchell said in a tone that made it hard for Greg to tell if the man was just being arrogant or if he really wanted to infuriate Greg. "And look what happens? You're the reason Jocelyn is in the hospital!"

"Jamie" Greg corrected Mitchell, too angry to formulate any other response to anything else the older man had said.

"Her name is Jocelyn," Mitchell said, as though Greg didn't know. "Jamie is just some silly nickname I don't prefer to use for my daughter."

"I know her name is Jocelyn," Greg stated hotly. He looked around the room for Tess hoping she would arrive before he completely lost his cool with Mitchell. How Tess managed to make a baby with this man was completely beyond Greg. He looked the older man in the eye squarely and decided to finish his sentence as pointedly as possible. "I _picked_ that name."

Before either man had any more time to berate the other a nurse appeared in front of them holding a clip board. "Which of you is Jamie's father?"

"I am," Mitchell piped up, standing to speak with her.

"Would you mind answering a few questions?" the nurse asked as Greg stood to be sure that Mitchell didn't get anything wrong.

"Sure," Mitchell said, oddly agreeably. "What do you need to know?"

"What's Jamie's last name?"

"Harlow," he answered. "Anything else?"

"Just a few more questions," she informed him patiently. "Can you tell me her middle name?"

"Uhh," Mitchell started, scrubbing his hands over his head.

"Middle initial?"

"Um," he said. After a moment's thought he guessed, "K?"

"A," Greg chimed in, frustrated. "Her middle name is Amy."

"Is she allergic to anything?"

"No," Mitchell said with authority. "Well, strawberries."

"No she isn't," Greg corrected him. "She's allergic to penicillin, peanuts, and latex. She's not in any way allergic to berries."

"Who are you exactly?" The nurse asked Greg, obviously a little confused. "And are you sure?"

"Positive," Greg told her. "You need anything else?"

"No, you're free to go in," she gestured to the door. "She seems worried about you. She's a good kid, that one."

"She is," Greg agreed.

He was about to push his way through the door to go visit with Jamie when he noticed Tess coming through the door into the hospital waiting room. The moment he noticed her it seemed Mitchell also did. They heard a booming angry voice demand, "it's about time!"

"Mitchell," Tess said in a warning tone. "I don't want to hear it. Where's my daughter?"

"She's in the back," Mitchell said, his tone thick and angry. "Thanks to your friend."

"Excuse me," Tess said, stopping to look Mitchell squarely in the eye. "You will not blame this on me nor on my friend. It was an accident, and I won't listen to this."

"So you're just going to let him get away with hurting our daughter?" Mitchell asked, growing even more agitated. "Because I don't intend to."

"Tess," Greg interjected, trying to both calm her and in the same instant pleading for forgiveness. "I don't even know what to say, I'm sorry."

"You," Tess snarled in Greg's direction. "Are off the hook if you get _him_ out of my face."


	11. Chapter 11

A/N: This is unedited and was written in the middle of the night. Mistakes happened. We both know it!

Many thanks to Hanna for helping me write this chapter. It's always easier to do this sort of thing with two people than with one, even if you don't always realize it. Also, thanks to you readers for not lynching me for this taking so long to get out to you. I've been really bad.

You can expect another update to be in your hands--or available for your viewing pleasure on Wednesday. You have my word. -LLK

* * *

January 4, 1998. 1:27 PM; EST.

--

Greg woke up with a bit of a start as his face collided with the floor. Disoriented it took him a few minutes to realize he'd fallen off of the couch in his own living room. He made his way back to standing and wandered into his bedroom realizing that Adam had made camp in there the previous night. No wonder Greg had decided to sleep on the couch. It was amazing the kinds of places he'd been known to wake up the day after an evening out with Adam. Adam's 21st birthday certainly wasn't the exception to the rule.

Deciding to take pity on his roommate he moved back out of his room without saying a word. Simply grabbing a fresh t-shirt from the floor and pulling it over his head as he walked down the hallway. For the time being he'd let his roommate sleep where he was. He was bound to wake up eventually anyway and until then it was technically still his birthday.

Greg looked at the clock in the kitchen as he made his way to the coffee pot stealing some of the Blue Hawaiian coffee that the neighbor had given Adam as a birthday gift. The two of them were given the stuff for almost every special occasion either of them had since they'd moved in. They became fast friends with the guy up the hall who owned a coffee shop and he frequently hooked them up with their favorite brew. The trouble was keeping any of it in the house for very long before both of them had demolished it.

Once he was satisfied that the coffee was brewing he moved to the table and picked up the purse he'd left there the night before. It took only a moment before he remembered grabbing it a few minutes before he and Adam had left the bar–and that some girl had accidentally left it behind. He dug through the purse for a few minutes before finding an address book and a driver's license.

He found a phone number which belonged to a person with the same last name as the one on the driver's license and dialed. A few rings and there was an answer, "Hello."

"Uh–hi," Greg stammered a bit. "My name is Greg. I found a purse at a bar last night. I was hoping to return it to its rightful owner. Do you know a Tessa Harlow?"

"That'd be my little sister," the voice on the other line answered. "Thanks for calling. I know she'll be thrilled that someone found it."

"Right," Greg agreed. "Uh–could you please put her on the phone. I'd like to arrange some way of getting it back to her."

"She's not here," the voice told him solemnly. "I could give you the number to her dorm though, if you want to try her there."

"Sure thanks," he said grabbing a pencil so he could take down the number. "Uh–I didn't catch your name."

"Kirsten," she told him. "You ready?"

"Yep," he took the number down quickly thanking the girl on the other end of the line one last time before hanging up. The phone rang a few times before there was an answer.

"Hello," she the voice on the other end of the line sounded exactly the same as the one he'd just hung up with. Even their method of answering was the same. Though, this voice was much more pleasant in tone–other than that they were the same. It was eerie.

"Uh hi," Greg said gently. "I'm calling for Tessa?"

"It's your lucky day but it's just Tess," the voice replied. The more Greg heard it the more he decided it was more pleasant than the previous voice. "Who's this?"

"Oh sorry," he said feeling a bit foolish for not introducing himself. "I'm Greg. I think I found your purse last night."

"You did?!" She replied, sounding relieved. "I've been so worried. You have it? Is there anything missing?"

"Well uh... I don't know honestly," he said as he checked through it carefully. "Address book, wallet, two sets of keys, a CD--uh looks like Spice Girls. And some papers and stuff's all here."

"That sounds like everything. I'm so relieved. What did you say your name was again?"

"Greg," he commented slowly wondering how she'd forgotten in only a moment. "And I guess it's a shame some of it wasn't stolen. I could trash the Spice World CD for you if you want. Nobody ever has to know it saw the inside of your purse but you and me."

Greg felt a bit more relaxed and thankful when he heard the sound of laughter coming from the other end of the line. "Hey now. Don't be dissing the Spice Girls. I saw them in concert. They were really good."

"Oh right," he teased back. "I guess I forgot that your wallet says you're only seventeen. Too young for real taste. What were you doing in a bar at that age anyway?"

"It was my sister's birthday," She said and then feigned insult before going back to the topic at hand. "Oh yea? And what do you listen to, oh wise one?"

"We'll be here all night if I try to give you a lesson in music," he wared her playfully. "Let's just say the greats. Kiss, Led Zeppelin, The Ramones. None of this pop-y twelve year old girl music."

"Oh, well thank you for enlightening me," her reply dripped in sarcasm. "I actually listen to them too, but I happen to like a little bubble gum pop on the side."

"Nice," he agreed. "Uh... well I could maybe put a mix tape in your purse when I bring it to you if you want. But it says here you live out of state. Are you going to be back in New York before long?"

"Alright, you're on." She said excitedly but her voice turned disappointed very quickly. "Unfortunately no, I'm back at school. I...I had to leave last night, so I think you'll have to mail it to me. I'll send you a check for the cost if that's alright."

"Oh I'm sorry," Greg said as he fumbled through his pockets looking for some cash. "Unfortunately it looks like my roommate spent all of my money last night–it was his birthday too. I've got a couple of stamps though. You want me to just put your license and important papers in an envelope and mail them? I could send the rest after pay day."

"That would be great if you wouldn't mind," she told him. "And you can check the wallet for cash. I don't think there is any in there though."

"It doesn't look like it," Greg said, checking. "I'll just put everything aside and send them out to you by about Tuesday. That okay?"

"Sounds really great," she agreed. "Thanks so much. I owe you one."

Their conversation trailed on for a few more minutes and then a few more. Finally they both agreed that it wouldn't be such a horrible thing if they kept in contact over the next few day–just to make sure she got her purse back safely. Besides, they also both agreed that neither was so bad and that it might be fun.


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: **Written because I love Racefh853629!

* * *

October 12, 2006. 10:48 PM; EST

--

"Finally you decide to call me back!" Tess practically shouted into the phone, beyond annoyed at

Greg for ignoring her messages and calls all day. "For all I know you could've been killed today you asshole."

"Tess?" She heard a voice asking on the other end of the line. A voice that wasn't Greg's. "Am I speaking with Tess?"

"Yeah," she said, growing a bit more concerned and confused by the moment. Someone called her from Greg's phone–and it wasn't Greg. "Who's calling."

"Warrick Brown," the voice offered. She relaxed immediately. Warrick was one of Greg's co-workers. One she'd grown fond of over the years of knowing him. "I'm sorry I didn't call you sooner."

"That's fine," she offered as she noticed the worry in his voice. Her stomach fell and she moved to the side of her bed to sit down. "Something happened to Greg, didn't it?"

"Well he's okay," Warrick wasn't convincing. She could almost hear the wheels turning as he searched for the right words. "But there's been an uh–accident."

"Oh," she breathed, barely audibly. "He's okay though? Just... not okay enough to call me himself and tell me what happened."

"He's alive," Warrick said slowly. They were quiet for a moment before he finished, "He's stable. The doctors told us he'll be fine. Back to work in no time."

"What happened!" She demanded not liking the sound of words like 'alive' and 'stable' they were terms people only ever used when they weren't sure they were true–or going to stay true. "What kind of accident?"

"Greg was on his way to a scene," Warrick started. "On his way he came upon a group of individuals who were beating a man. He phoned in for back-up but I guess dispatch wasn't responding fast enough. He tried to break up the group in order to save the victim's life. All he was able to do was distract them though. Instead of beating the other man to death Greggo got the brunt of the beating. We found him in the alley approximately seven minutes later. He's at Desert Palms hospital right now, and he's gonna be okay."

"Wow," she said, trying to take it all in. Greg had nearly given his life to save a stranger's. Something she ought to be very proud of him for. Instead she was furious. "And you're sure he's going to be okay? I mean he was nearly beaten to death..."

"He's going to pull through this one," Warrick promised her. "I heard a few minutes ago that he's already starting to wake up. He's just a little groggy. My wife's on his ward tonight, she's keeping me posted."

"Good," Tess said. "That makes me feel better."

"I'll let you know if anything changes," he offered. "I mean anything. I'm at the hospital right now checking in on him. And we're going to catch the whole group of bastards who did this to him."

"Oh I know you'll catch them," she said feeling completely confident. Greg's co-workers and team were some of the best investigators out there. Another moment passed in silence before Tess spoke up again, "Mind if I ask you something?"

"Go for it," Warrick agreed. "I'm you're only line in on our side for the next few minutes."

"How come you called me?" She couldn't help but be curious as to why Warrick had taken time out of his busy day to call a friend of Greg's from the other side of the country.

"Oh, that was Greg's idea," he teased her with a short chuckle. "Well, sorta. He was trying to text you when we found him. Plus I saw that you'd called five or six times. I figured someone ought to let you know what was happening."

"Well, thank you." Tess got up from her position on her bed and started moving around her room with ferocity. She piled items of clothing and necessity onto her bed and grabbed for her suitcase. "Do you think I could ask for one more favor?"

"Pick you up at the airport?" He asked before she could even hint. She wondered if Greg talked about her so much that she'd become predictable to a group of near-strangers. "I'll have to borrow my wife's car–which she won't appreciate. But sure. Will you call me before you board to let me know when you land?"

"Sure," she agreed. "It'll be the first flight I can actually catch. And thank your wife for me, if you don't mind. I owe you both one."

"No problem," he said before giving her a phone number. She logged the number into her phone and thanked him again before saying goodbye.

They said their good-bye's quickly and Tess looked at the heap of clothing and other matter on her bed. It was enough to get her through a few days. She grabbed for her laptop which sat comfortably at the top of the pile and started looking up flights. There was one available to her in exactly six hours but she'd have to buy her ticket when she arrived at the airport–it would do. Just to be sure she checked the other Airlines for an earlier flight out and decided that the first she found would have her in Vegas the soonest.

She got up and moved down the hall to the bedroom adjacent to hers. Their apartment was small but not too tiny for the two of them to live comfortably. Neither needed much room to roam and both preferred the cozy feeling of being tucked away someplace small and tidy.

Standing outside the doorway she heard voices in the room she was approaching. Voices and bouncy fast-paced music. Her daughter was still wide awake watching cartoons. She knocked on the door and waited for the gentle, tiny, voice to tel her to come in.

"You're supposed to be sleeping," Tess warned her only daughter and other best friend in the world. "Lights out in ten minutes, okay kiddo? We've got a really early morning."

"Mommy were you crying?" The girl asked, pushing the blankets away from her and grabbing her mother's hand. She pulled her down so that she was sitting on the bed. "What's wrong Mommy?"

"I wasn't crying sweetie," she informed her little girl. "I was just a little worried about something. I'm going to take you to your dad's house in the morning, okay?"

"No," Tess couldn't help but smile at her daughter's nerve sometimes. She didn't know many six year-olds that would tell their mother no like that. "Mommy what are you worried about?"

"Oh it's grown-up stuff sweetie," she said with a gentle smile. "But Mommy's going to have to go out of town for a couple of days. I'll be right back though and then you won't have to go to Daddy's any more for a while."

"I don't think so," the child said not sounding convinced in the slightest. "Did somebody get hurt?"

"Yes," Tess said, realizing there was no point in lying to her child. She'd made the mistake of being honest with her child from the start–about everything. So now there was very little the too-grown-up kid missed. "Your uncle Greg was in an accident."

Tears flooded in the child's eyes before either one of them could think of anything to do to stop it. Seeing her child begin to cry made Tess well up a second time that night, this time a few tears fell from her eyes. They were both sniffling loudly when Jamie finally forced out a question. "Is he okay?"

"He's just fine sweetie," Tess promised her. "Remember his friend Warrick? He called and told me that everything's gonna be okay. And Warrick doesn't lie–ever."

"All grown-ups lie Mommy," the child informed her. "Can I come with you?"

"No honey," Tess said, wanting so badly to bring her. "You have school and your sleep-over on Saturday. And Daddy wouldn't want us going away without checking with him."

"Don't tell him," Jamie offered, as though it was the solution for everything.

"I'm not going to lie to your Father," she said. For effect she turned and looked at her daughter and added, "Jamie."

"All grown-ups lie," her tiny daughter said, looking her square in the eyes. "Mommy."

"You're a little shit," she said to her daughter as she got up and started collecting a few items. "Go put these in the suitcase on my bed. And then you have to get to sleep, our flight is really early in the morning."

"Okay," the child said, grinning from ear to ear. "Thank you Mommy."


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N:** Written because I _really _love Racefh853629. Happy Birthday!

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October 13, 2006. 2:12 PM; PST

--

"Thanks Warrick," Tess said as she leaned across the center console in his wife's car and gave him an awkward hug. "I owe you one."

"Me too," Jamie piped up from the back seat. Neither had been aware that she'd even woken up. She leaned over the back of his seat and dropped a big kiss on his cheek and then scrambled out of the car. "Come on Mommy we gotta go check on uncle Greg!"

"Thanks again," Tess offered as she went to grab her bags out of the back of the car. "I'll see you later."

"You can leave those there," he offered with a warm smile. "You're gonna need a ride back to Greg's house later."

"Okay, I guess I owe you more than one," she said and gave him a smile before climbing out of the car and looking around over her shoulder for her daughter. When she spotted her she leaned back into the car and said, "Thanks again. Really."

She and Jamie were almost in the building before she even thought about stopping to hear if he'd had any sort of response. Frankly with Greg laying in a hospital bed little else mattered to her at the moment. She walked swiftly up to the reception desk and asked, "Greg Sanders?"

"We can't give out his room information to anyone but family," the squat middle-aged woman said, looking over the edge of her glasses. "What's your relation?"

"His supervisor," she stated squarely. "Gil Grissom called me and asked me to come down. This is Greg's niece. We want to see him. Now."

"Whatever you say Miss," the woman said, obviously trying avoid the confrontation. "Room thirty-six eleven."

"Thanks," Tess said as she pushed her purse up on her shoulder and grabbed Jamie's hand. "This way sweetie."

They walked into Greg's room all of five minutes later and were surprised to see him sitting up in his bed watching television. It wasn't a pretty sight, regardless of how alert he seemed to be. His face was swollen and bruised. There were visible bruises and gashes littered across his face, neck, and what was visible of his shoulders.

"Uncle Greg!" Jamie shrieked as she dove onto the bed next to him. "I was worried about you."

"I'm fine kid," he said, pulling her into a hug so tight that Tess heard him wince from the pain. "I didn't know if I should expect you two."

"Tell me what happened," Tess said, sitting on the edge of his bed. The image in front of her was a little too familiar. Greg laying in a hospital bed with his arms wrapped around Jamie. "And I mean detailed."

Greg gestured to Jamie and raised his eyebrows. Obviously asking Tess exactly how detailed she wanted him to be given present company. Tess simply bit her lip and then offered him a glare. There wasn't any way she was going to let him get out of this explanation. She had been too scared. Way too scared.

"Jamie, honey," she said gently. "Can you walk up the hall and see if you see anyone from Greg's work in the waiting room. But stay off of the elevator, okay?"

"I don't wanna leave," she said with a pout. Tess watched as her manipulative little daughter looked up at Greg with the biggest puppy-dog eyes she'd ever seen. "I wanna be here with uncle Greg."

"Now," Tess warned. Her tone was stern, one she saved for serious occasions. "Go, if you find any of them I want you to say 'hi' and tell them it's good to see them again. Use your manners."

"But," Tess didn't give her daughter much of a chance to argue before giving her another of her patented 'I mean business' looks. "Yes ma'am."

Tess didn't have much time after watching her daughter scoot out of the hospital room before another figure appeared in the door. She groaned audibly, teenager style. "I just wanted to thank you again," the man said, regarding Greg. "I owe you my life. We're on our way back home now. Don't forget you promised to stop by and visit."

"I will," Greg promised. "You be careful there. Keep off that leg until it heals."

"Sure thing," the gentlemen said. He winked at Tess and disappeared from their sight just as fast as he'd come.

"That's the guy--" Greg started to say as Tess cut him off. She did something that neither had been expecting. Something that neither one of them had really put much consideration into before.

A full moment passed before either of them really realized that their lips were pressed firmly together.

"Uh, oh..." Tess said awkwardly as she pulled away. They both coughed awkwardly before she spoke up again. "So, that was the guy you saved?"

"He acts like I'm some sort of hero," Greg commented, looking past Tess towards the hallway where he saw the faint outline of a tiny auburn-headed girl. "I'm no hero."

"Greg that man owes you his life," Tess reminded him, pulling back to a safe distance but locking her fingers around his. "To him you are."

"I killed a kid Tess," Greg said bluntly. "Did they tell you that? I hit a college kid with my car and killed him. I'm no hero–I'm a common murderer."

"I wasn't there Greg," Tess said, looking him squarely in the eyes. "And you know I'm the last person who would ever tell you you were in the right if you weren't. But I don't believe that you're a murderer Greg. If this kid lost his life maybe he shouldn't have been beating an innocent man in the street."

"I'm not faultless you know," Greg informed her. "Sometimes I'm the bad guy."

"Not this time." The details didn't matter to her anymore. They hadn't really mattered from the minute she saw the man Greg had saved walk into the room. That man was alive because of Greg and that was all that mattered. Regardless of any of the other facts. That man was alive because of Greg.


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N: I'm going to try to focus on this story until I get to a reasonable end. I'd love to know what questions you all have that you'd like answered, so I know where to go from here. I don't want any more un-finished projects on my profile. And, this was a fun way to try to get back into the game.**

**This one was harder to write than you'd think, I just hope I captured Greg's reaction the way I should have. Enjoy. And, please review.**

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May 15, 2008. 7:14 PM; PST.

Greg snapped his phone closed slowly and rubbed both hands over his forehead several times. For a moment time slowed and then it picked up again at a rapid pace. He rubbed his hands over his head again and stood, in a complete daze. If he'd been nine shots into an evening with Adam ten years ago, he'd probably be thinking more clearly than he was. He pawed around him for his belongings, not sure what he was looking for nor if he cared what he found.

"Sir," a woman's voice and gentle touch interrupted his numbness. "You need to take your seat, the flight will be leaving soon."

"Warrick's dead." It was the only sentence he could form. When he was met by a confused look, and the concerned glances of the passengers near him he repeated himself. "Warrick, he's dead."

"Sir, is everything okay?" The attendant asked.

"No," Greg said, slipping a little bit more out of his daze, and a little more into shock. "I have to get off the plane."

"Sir, I'm afraid you can't do that," the attendant told him gently. Then with more firmness added, "You need to take your seat."

"No," Greg said, forcefully. He dug through his pockets until he found his badge and showed it to the girl. "I just got the call that my partner-my friend-was murdered. I'm going to get off this plane and I'm going to go help my team figure out who did this to him. Now, please get out of my way and let me off."

There were no more arguments and Greg, not for the first time in his life, was glad to be a member of law enforcement. Fifteen minutes passed and he'd reclaimed his car from long-term parking and was en-route back to the lab. Two hours ago Warrick had wished him luck with meeting with the publisher, now-he couldn't believe it. Unable to think and with nothing else to do, he grabbed for his phone and dialed Tess' number.

"I thought you'd be in the air already," she answered. "Tell me you didn't chicken out."

In a cold and slow tone he said, "something happened."

"Oh," he heard her voice fall. "Greg, what is it?"

"It's Warrick," he said. He sucked a few deep breaths before finishing. "He's dead."

"No!" Tess cried loudly. "That's impossible. You just saw him. What happened. How? Why?"

"Nobody knows yet." He ran his hand through his hair again, and feeling overcome for a moment almost pulled his car over but a sense of wanting to find the person responsible won out. "We'll find out though."

"Oh, I know you will." She paused for a moment. "What can I do?"

"Nothing," Greg said, knowing it wouldn't be a good enough answer. "I mean, honestly I'm still in shock. I only found out about a half hour ago."

"Damn," Tess commented slowly. Greg heard young Jamie's voice in the background asking what happened, and heard Tess tell her she'd lost an uncle. After another moment of listening to noise at Tess' end, she returned. "Jamie wants to say hi."

"Put her on," Greg said, smiling only quickly. The kid always made him feel better, and he needed her almost more than Tess at the moment.

"I'm so sorry Uncle Greg," he heard her tiny young-but-so-grown-up voice.

"Thanks kid," he said. "I love you."

"Try not to be too sad okay?"

"I'll try," he smiled, trying to keep his promise. "Can I talk to your mom again?"

"Yeah, love you uncle Greg." He heard the phone pass between hands.

"I just thought of something," Tess said much in her abrupt style. "How's Catherine taking it?"

_Catherine. _He felt a sensation in his chest like hitting a brick wall at full force. Catherine. He hadn't thought about her yet but she must be going through, well he couldn't actually imagine what she was going though.

Again, he felt like he should pull over and re-group... but also again, he felt an overpowering need to catch the bastard responsible for causing so much hurt and for taking Warrick's life. Instead of pulling to the side of the road he simply pressed the accelerator to the floor. Regardless of his own safety, he knew no cop would hold him if he was pulled over.

"I..." he stammered. "Don't... know. I haven't talked to her. Grissom's with her, I'm sure she's as okay as possible."

"She's really going to need a friend," she pointed out. Greg wanted to tell her that so was he, but he knew she was right. "You know I've always said that there was something there... between the two of them."

"I'm not blind," he said, shortly. Warrick might have been special to Catherine, but he'd lost a friend too. "We're _all_ going to have a tough time with this. We lost a part of our family today. I lost a brother."

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**Thanks for reading this time!**

**-LLK**


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N: Here's another chapter. I know it seems that I've forgotten about this story and about fanfic in general. It's not true! I'm just busy these days with school, kids, life, family, and all those other petty un-important distractions from fanfic. Just kidding. Anyway, here's another chapter. Eventually you'll see the whole story. I promise. I'd say with everything I have planned, we're about 1/3 of the way there. Yay! **

**-LLK**

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February 14, 1998. 10:13 PM; EST.

It was a bitter cold as Greg made his way, half wandering-half rushing to keep warm. Though he hadn't planned it when he'd left his apartment three hours before, he finally had a clear destination in mind. The bar. His bar. Well, the one he and Adam spent all of their time at. After all, it was singles awareness day and where else should someone be, if not at the bar filling the void of loneliness with a liquid lady? It wasn't that Greg was an alcoholic or anything, but a man his age usually filled his problems in less than constructive ways. Besides given his internship with the New York Police Department, he couldn't exactly take any risks. No, a few drinks a week were fine, but he treaded the line carefully.

As he turned the last corner he caught sight of the light pole he'd accidentally walked Adam into on his birthday. Though he couldn't ever tell his buddy why the sight of it always brought a laugh to his lips. Something else, however, caught his attention just as quickly.

A scream.

He went towards the sound hearing it again before he found the source. There was a struggle in front of the bar. A man and woman. The man standing over her while she lay beside a car. She was fighting to get back to her feet, but he kept pushing her back down. As Greg grew closer her face came into view. Kate.

He immediately sprung into action running in their direction and ready for a fight. He surveyed the situation quickly, noticing that the man didn't have any form of weapon. A moment later he felt his body slamming into the man's, sending the other form to the ground. Obviously having been blindsided the man reared around quickly, looking to see who struck him. As he saw a NYPD ID produced the man scrambled to his feet and took off. Greg's first official act of hero-dom was over as quickly as it started. Fortunately for both Greg and Kate, he'd seemed un-interested in hanging around to finish mugging her when a third party entered the picture. Unfortunately for the crime fighter in Greg the perpetrator was gone, and back on the streets, before he had the chance to call it in.

As he scanned the area for the missing criminal but as he didn't see him around he turned his attention back to Kate. As he fell to his knees beside her he asked, "You okay?"

"Alright," she answered. "Shaken."

Greg smiled in relief and shifted to help her to her feet. "He didn't take anything?" he asked and again added, "and you're sure you're not hurt?"

"Mmhm," she said, as she dusted herself off, tucking an elusive piece of hair behind her ear. "You came just in time. Thanks."

"I'm Greg," he offered. "I'm not sure if we've ever officially met."

"We haven't," she said. "I'm..."

"Kate," he cut her off. "You work at the Green Diamond, I'm there a lot with my buddy on our days off."

"Right," she said. "I knew your face was familiar."

"Sorry to be all creepy on you," he offered. "I'm not some weird stalker or anything. It's just tough not to notice someone like you."

Greg couldn't help but blush as she offered a quiet thanks. When she gave him a smile he blushed even more. He blinked, smiled back at her, and asked, "Would you wanna go uh... get a drink or something?"

"I guess I owe you one," she said. "Your treat?"

"My treat," he agreed, shelling off his jacket and gently dropping it over her shoulders. "What do you have in mind?"


End file.
